Journalist wins damages over coverage of murder case

A British journalist questioned about the murder of French film-maker Sophie Toscan du Plantier seven years ago has won £5,600 in libel damages over press coverage of the investigation into her death.

Ian Bailey, a Cork-based writer and poet, won just two out of seven actions he brought against eight British and Irish newspapers.

Judge Patrick Moran ruled that the Irish Mirror and the Sun libelled Bailey in their coverage of the murder of Ms Toscan du Plantier, who was found bludgeoned to death near her holiday home in Schull, West Cork in December 1996.

Bailey was twice arrested and questioned by gardai in connection with the case but released without charge.

He claimed he was named as her murderer by the media and brought a defamation action against the Irish Mirror, Independent Newspapers, Independent Newspapers UK, the Times, the Independent Star Ltd, Newsgroup Newspapers and the Telegraph.

The Manchester-born journalist told the court he had never met Ms Toscan du Plantier, who was 38 at the time she died, and claimed his life was ruined by "monstrous defamations" made against him, and that his livelihood was destroyed.

He said he only went to the murder scene on December 23 1996 after being asked to cover the case for the Irish Examiner newspaper.

Bailey accepted he was regarded as a suspect in the inquiry, on which he also reported for Irish and French publications, but he denied involvement in the murder.

Explaining scratches on his arms and face during the early part of the murder inquiry, Bailey told the court he had been killing turkeys for Christmas dinner and had suffered cuts to his arm and scratches to his face and hands while chopping down a Christmas tree.

The court heard that despite Bailey's arrest and subsequent examination of his clothes, blood and DNA, no charges were ever brought against him. Bailey, 47, first launched legal action against the newspapers in 1999.

Ms Toscan du Plantier's murder, two days before Christmas in 1996, caused shock waves across her native France and the quiet Cork countryside.

Her body was found in the lane outside her converted farmhouse. Despite the police investigation and constant appeals by her family, nobody has been charged in relation to the murder.